| 3. Linguistic Exegesis The conjunction kai {καὶ | kaí} links this verse to the previous praise, while deuteron {δεύτερον | deú-te-ron} “a second time” foregrounds repetition, marking a renewed heavenly response. The verb eirekan {εἴρηκαν | eí-rē-kan}, a perfect active indicative, presents the acclamation as a completed declaration whose effects continue. The interjection Halleluia {Ἁλληλουϊά | Hal-lē-lou-iá} is a direct borrowing from Hebrew, functioning as a liturgical shout meaning “praise Yahweh,” and stands alone as the content of the cry. The next kai introduces a new clause, with ho kapnos autes {ὁ καπνὸς αὐτῆς | ho kap-nòs au-tês} “the smoke of her” using a possessive genitive to refer back to the judged city (Babylon) without naming it, allowing the pronoun to carry the narrative continuity. Anabainei {ἀναβαίνει | a-na-baí-nei} is present tense, depicting the rising of the smoke as ongoing, almost visually continuous. The prepositional phrase eis tous aionas ton aionon {εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων | eis toús ai-ô-nas tôn ai-ô-nōn} is an intensified idiom: the plural “ages” plus the genitive “of the ages” stacks temporal terms to express unending duration. In translation, the first clause is rendered with explicit quotation to preserve the reported speech, and the second clause is cast as a simple declarative sentence that keeps the present-progressive sense (“rises” / “keeps rising”), while the idiom is captured by “forever and ever” / “for all eternity” to communicate the force of the Greek construction. |